Conference Location & Hotel Accommodations
The conference will take place at the Swissôtel, 323 E. Wacker Drive, Chicago, IL. Click here for a map of the event center at the Swissôtel. Click here for more information on how to make a reservation.

Registration Fee

$600 - head of member school

$700 - head of non-member school

50% discount for those new heads registered for the ISACS year-long New Heads Network program. If you are enrolled in the New Heads Network, please call the ISACS office at (312) 750-1190 to receive a coupon code before registering for the Heads Conference.

Registration fee includes two continental breakfasts, two banquet lunches, and Thursday evening’s reception and dinner.

1 in 13 kids are diagnosed with a food allergy. That’s about two in every classroom in the U.S. School staff at every level can keep kids with food allergies safe and included if they understand what food allergies are, how to prevent a food allergic reaction, and how to recognize and respond to a potentially life-threatening situation. Learn to manage food allergies in the classroom by creating a safe environment where staff and students can focus on learning instead of worrying about food. Participants will leave feeling more prepared, empowered, and confident to keep students with food allergies safe and take emergency action if needed.

Jennifer Solomon joined Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE) as a community engagement senior associate. Her work includes building productive relationships on the ground with local communities including the development and implementation of community-based initiatives to advance food allergy awareness, education and programming, working with FARE’s college program and supporting advocacy efforts in various states. Prior to joining FARE, Solomon worked in strategic communications and advocacy. Her public affairs career has focused on complex and often controversial issues within education, health care, energy, transportation, and economic development. Her clients have included non-profits, foundations, government agencies, associations, and corporations. She has a masters of public policy from the University of Chicago. She is based in FARE’s Chicago area office and has an eight-year old son who is anaphylactic to dairy.

Price:
ISACS members: $75.00
Nonmembers: $100.00

Discounts of up to $15.00 per seminar are available if you register for multiple seminars.

REGISTER TODAY: Lost Boys: Strategies to Help Educators Navigate the World of Boys for Academic Success with Steph Jenson on Dec. 7

The workshop will take place from 9:30 am - 3:00 pm;
Jenson will be available for Q and A until 3:30 pm.

Boys are held back in school twice as often as girls. Boys also get expelled from preschool nearly five times more often than girls, and they are diagnosed with learning disorders and attention problems at nearly four times the rate of girls. Boys make up only 43 percent of college students. Millions of boys are being lost along the path to academic success and career achievement in today’s knowledge economy. Teacher bias regarding behavior, rather than academic performance, penalizes boys as early as kindergarten. On average, boys receive lower behavioral assessment scores, and those scores affect teachers' overall perceptions of boys' intelligence and achievement.

Rather than penalize boys' high energy -- as traditional classroom methods often do -- successful teachers are learning to take advantage of male liveliness, curiosity, and thirst for competition. Unless educators stop to consider whether traditional methods are working for both genders, boys will continue to get the short end of the educational stick.

This workshop will help educators understand the structural, chemical, and processing differences between boys' and girls’ brains. Participants will learn to support boys’ developmental needs, while teaching them social /emotional competencies. Discover innovative strategies, as well as group and individual interventions, to help boys achieve their highest academic potential.

This workshop is for all grade levels.

Steph Jenson has held positions as classroom teacher, team leader, administrator, trainer, education consultant, and national speaker. She also holds a master's degree in clinical counseling, focusing her efforts on adolescent and family issues. In recent years. Jenson has applied her passion for adolescents to focus on the dynamics of relational aggression, cyberbullying, and sexualized bullying. She has spoken at national conferences and school across the country -- combining research, practical strategies, prevention planning, parent education, crisis intervention, and curriculum implementation. She is the author of Thrive in the Hive, Princess Priscilla and the Bully-Bee Day, andPrincess Priscilla and the Mood Ring Rainbow.

Location of Workshop
The workshop will take place at the ISACS classroom, 55 West Wacker Drive, Suite 702, Chicago, IL.

Registration Fee

$225 member fee

$300 non-member fee

There is no group discount for this workshop

This workshop includes a copy of the workbook: Lost Boys: Strategies to help educators navigate the world of boys for academic success

Workshop includes light breakfast, lunch, and daily refreshments

Please review the Registration Confirmation information below

Contacting the ISACS office
If you have any questions related to any aspect of your attendance or travel, please contact the ISACS office at (312) 750-1190 or email programinfo@isacs.org.

IMPORTANT: Online Registration is Now Closed for Trustee Day - an Extension of the ISACS Annual Conference!

Online Registration is Now Closed for ISACS Trustee Day.

ISACS can provide you with a late/onsite registration form, which must be completed and returned to the ISACS office by Wednesday, October 24. The registration fee for members is now $200. Please call the ISACS office at (312) 750-1190 to request the form or if you have any questions.

*** Hotel Update as of 10/11 ***
Discounted rooms at the main conference hotel, the Westin Book Cadillac and the overflow hotel, the Holiday Inn Express are at capacity. Please book a room in Detroit using your preferred travel website. Please call the ISACS office at (312) 750-1190 with any questions.

ISACS is pleased to host Trustee Day on Thursday, November 8, 2018, at Cobo Center. Designed as an extension of the ISACS Annual Conference, this will be an energizing and thought-provoking day featuring a series of stimulating presentations and conversations designed specifically for the independent school board member. Included in the registration fee will be two half-day presentations by Caryn Pass and James Honan complemented by the opportunity to join the conference luncheon and hear the keynote presentation by Beverly Daniel Tatum. Trustee Day will be held from 9:30 am – 3:30 pm. There is also a special session for board chairs and heads from 8:15 am – 9:15 am offered at no additional charge.

Online Registration is Now Closed for the ISACS Annual Conference.

ISACS can provide you with a late/onsite registration form, which must be completed and returned to the ISACS office by Wednesday, October 24. The registration fee for members is now $200 for one-day attendance and $300 for two-day attendance. Please call the ISACS office if you have any questions or to request the late/onsite registration form at (312) 750-1190.

As of November 1, there are no changes to your session selections or lunch attendance.
If you pre-selected TL-2 and FL-2 (no lunch attendance) please do not plan to attend the lunch.
For sessions, please attend only sessions that are not full (the full sessions are listed below and also marked on the Thursday and Friday onsite schedules).

*** Hotel Update as of 10/11 ****
Discounted rooms at the main conference hotel, the Westin Book Cadillac and the overflow hotel, the Holiday Inn Express are at capacity. Please book a room in Detroit using your preferred travel website. Please call the ISACS office at (312) 750-1190 with any questions.

Conference BrochureClick here for the Annual Conference Brochure. Brochures will be sent to ISACS member schools in August.Click here for the Annual Conference Flip Book Brochure.

The ISACS 2018-19 workshops are now posted on the ISACS website and REGISTRATION IS OPEN for many events. ISACS will be hosting many national experts in the topics essential to our schools, and we encourage you to join us in Chicago as these educational leaders share insight, expertise and best practices. Due to the compelling content, many of these events will reach capacity attendance so we urge you to register early to ensure your participation.

Click Here to review more detailed program descriptions, presenter bios and to register for workshops.

Professional dialogue is one of the most powerful aspects of a learning community. ISACS has developed another exciting and thought-provoking Learning Bridge Webinar line-up for 2018-19 featuring educational leaders to provide the foundation for continuing professional dialogue in your schools.

We hope you will take advantage of this effective, affordable and efficient format to gather faculty, administrators, parents and trustees to hear from leading experts on a number of compelling topics. Due to the impact of this affordable method of professional development, more than 100 ISACS schools participated last year. If you have not already done so, we encourage you to consider the upcoming topics and speakers as you plan your professional development opportunities for the coming school year.

The standard fee for Learning Bridges is $75 per webinar. If you register for 10 or more webinars, the fee is $60 per webinar. As part of the registration fee, your school community will be able to benefit from real-time participation in the interactive live session, when you can ask questions and receive responses provided by the presenter. If flexibility is what you need, you have access to a password-protected recorded version for four weeks following the live webinar.

Click here for a PDF of the Learning Bridge Webinars & share with colleagues.

Out the Door: What We Can Learn from Abrupt Departures from Headship by Claudia Daggett

(Posted: Tuesday, July 3, 2018)

In the June issue of The Trustee's Letter, published by Independent Thinking, ISACS Executive Director Claudia Daggett examines the recent trend of abrupt departures from headship. Click here to read the article.

Announcement: The 19th edition of the Membership and Accreditation Guide is now available!

As you may know, the time for review and revision of accreditation standards and publication of a new version of the Membership and Accreditation Guide comes around periodically. The revision process typically occurs on a three-year interval, although this time we took a fourth year given the scope of our goals for this particular edition.

Primary changes in this edition include:

Revision of standards and enhancement of self-study prompts to incorporate the direction established by the ISACS equity resolution.

Addition of two new standards: C7, pertaining to child abuse prevention in schools, and G2, regarding the health and safety of children in residential schools.

Update of the employment section of the ISACS Principles of Good Practice for Admissions and Employment.

Requirement of a standalone report for admission processes and procedures, now separate from the Student Body report.

This edition reflects the work of many dedicated groups, all volunteers: the ISACS Board and Accreditation Review Committee, in the revision of standards; the ISACS Equity & Justice Committee, in offering their perspectives; and two special subcommittees of the ARC, one responsible for drafting self-study prompt language relative to the equity resolution and another responsible for adjustments to clarity, readability, and digital formatting of the document as a whole. We are grateful to everyone who participated in this process.

The 19th edition should be used as the guide for accreditation processes during the school years of 2017-18, 2018-19, and 2019-20 for schools entering the Year 2 process of writing the self-study during that time period. Schools entering Years 3-6 of the cycle will continue to use the 18th edition.

As you read through the new accreditation guide, please let us know if you find any broken links or other errors. One of the benefits of an online publication is the opportunity to make corrections in “real time.” And, if you have any other questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to get in touch.